If you have a £50 note anywhere check it now: if the face that features on it is Sir John Houblon then you only have until Wednesday to spend it.

After 30 April, notes carrying the image of the first governor of the Bank of England will no longer be legal tender, meaning retailers will not be able to accept them.

Although the withdrawal of the Houblon note was announced in January, the Bank's latest estimate suggested that 53m notes worth £2.65bn were in circulation a fortnight ago.

It said that it was not unusual for notes to remain in people's hands after they ceased to be legal tender. Almost four years after the £20 Elgar note was withdrawn, the Bank said it believed 80m worth £1.6bn were still outstanding.

After Wednesday only the £50 note featuring Matthew Boulton and James Watt, which was introduced in November 2011, will hold legal tender status.

Anyone holding Houblon notes should be able to pay them into a deposit account held at a bank or building society.

Barclays, NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank and the Post Office have all agreed to exchange the notes, up to the value of £200, until 30 October 2014.

At any point, members of the public can get notes exchanged by the Bank of England, either by visiting its premises in London or by post.

To read the complete article, see:It's time to offload these £50 notes(www.theguardian.com/money/2014/apr/28/50-pound-notes-bank-of-england-houblon)